On the Last Leg of the Adventure!!

One more day of convention in Sri Lanka. Tomo's trip is almost over. He is pretty much ready for some normal food (read: American food here) and a regular bed and a nice hot tub (a Japanese Hot spring would be nice here!!). It's  been a very nice but spiritually painful conventions all along if you understand his feelings. Lots of nice thoughts and also lots of work to do. 

Tomo's traveling wish list got bigger at this convention as he has now knows some workers and friends in South Africa as well now. 

Thats the view I get from my seat in meeting... Tropical!!

In the last few days in Colombo, Tomo and the other visitors will be meetings some of those not able to get out to convention and will have a gathering on Wednesday night to say farewell.  Tomo's cousin, Mariko Fujii will fly out  of Colombo back to Japan via Singapore in the wee hours of the morning Thursday.  The other visitors will be returning likewise to their destinations.  Then Tomo will be flying out of Colombo International Airport on Thursday night at 8:45 pm flying back to Mumbai, India.  He has a flight out of Mumbai at 2:35 am on Friday morning.  Arriving in London at 7:10 am.  Then changes planes in London and flies direct to Seattle, arriving at 16:10 pm on Friday afternoon.  Hopefully the Seattle area will be in the melted mode by then, and landing will be okay.  

The Last of the India photos and on to Sri Lanka!!

Update for the blog. 

The group took an over night train ride down to Bangalore after Rajahmundry Convention and Tomo stayed at one of the friends house for 2 nights with Peter. Then another 5 hour train ride to Coimbatore, India. First night was in hotel but from the second day, Tomo moved out to grounds. 

Right after the Sunday afternoon meeting, 6 visitor workers, Helen Windsor, a Australian worker that's going back to Australia after Colombo convention and her sister and brother-in-law, that are escorting her home and Prabhakar, the overseer of North India and I were transported to Coimbatore Airport. Which was 7 minutes away by car.  We all flew to Chennai and stayed in a hotel for the night. We flew out of Chennai Monday morning and arrived at Colombo on time and 2 workers Gary(AUS) and Benny(S.African) picked us up and took us to the grounds. Sri Lanka is a lot cleaner than India, speaking from what I saw in the 1 hour drive to the grounds from the airport. Grounds look like a miniature American convention grounds. 

Here are some photos from along the way.

Pictures of Bangalore silk shopping. (for my MOM!!)

Vinay took Peter & I to town for shopping.
These guys were kind to go with me into the land of fabric. 
I was not real comfortable there, auto store....different story! ; )

Hotel in Coimbatore, India

Came to the grounds for dinner. Another wedding hall and this time it's full of

mosquitos.... No air conditioning what so ever and it's right around 30 ℃ or so.

All the creatures that joined me for a bath at Coinbatore. 

"Kame mushi" (Stink Bug)

Gecko

Frog

Last convention in India... Highlight of this convention would be giving Vivek a haircut. Made quite a show out of it for some people Hope it won't look weird in the morning.

Giving my buddy Vivek a haircut at Coimbatore. 

Hoping the battery charge holds out to the end of the cut!!

My bed at Coimbatore in the mens quarters.
This plus a mosquito net hanging.
The dark blue with orange stripes. 

Colombo Convention meeting tent. 

Arrive into Colombo this morning from Chennai. The conv grounds are lot like

the US conv grounds. Very nice weather at the moment. I'm liking it already!!

More photos of Tomo in India

Thanks to Oana.  Tomo in his element!

Tomo and Oana

Tomo & Zach are enjoying the meal with God's given utensils.  Zach is from Colorado and has been in India on a special program for five months and will be there for another five months. The Sri Lankan young men took Tomo's spoon away at Mysore, his first convention. So he had to learn how to eat Indian style quickly. 

Julia and Tomo

In explanation of something..... 

George and Barbara with Tomo

Julia, Sean, Oana, Tomo and Joshvin

Tomo, Julia, Oana, Luke, Sean

Boys!

Break time on the town. 

The Australian men are patiently waiting for 
the ladies as they shop for their saris. 
(Steve is standing in the back, Robert is in the gray shirt,
Steve's son Brendon in the black shirt.) 

A few more photos via New Friends

Just got a message from Tomo.  He is with Peter Doecke in Bangalore, India for two night with some of the friends there.  They just returned from Rajahmundry Convention and had a lovely time.  Will be on to Coimbatore for the final Indian Convention, and then last stop is Colombo, Sri Lanka for the final convention.  


The following photos are in courtesy of Oana.  She is living in Germany but originally from Romania. 


Since Tomo has been in India, we have received a few emails from some of the people he has met along the way and they have sent some photos along. Will share some of these with you here.  These were taken at Mysore, India and Bangalore, India.  Bangalore is an all English convention and this is usually where the foreign visitors attend most commonly.  

Mariko and Tomo had dinner with friends,
Anita and Michael and children in Mysore, India.

Two young men, Sean and Luke from Sri Lanka and
Tomo and the friends in Mysore, India

Some of the young people gathering together at Bangalore, India.
Germany, Romania, Sri Lanka, India and Japan/America are represented here. 

Oana, Tomo and Julia
(not sure what is in their hands, looks like Indian bread?)

Meeting some guys from Sri Lanka, Sean and Luke

Not sure what they were doing here? Ignoring the camera?? 

Visiting in the meeting tent at Bangalore, India

More photos from INDIA

Here are a few more photos of Rajahmundry, India.  On Tuesday the 3rd of January, the visiting friends and workers were gathered together for a tour of some villages in the area.  These villages are the home of some of the workers in India.  

This is from the inside of the Hotel taxi that drove them to the village so they could meet parents and grandparents of the newest young brother worker.   

Along the way they found a truck on it side.  Exactly what happened is not sure but Tomo's heart went out to the driver.  This truck was carrying coal and coal dust.  The silver car in the back is some of our visitors following our taxi.  

This is Tomo holding a fan that is used in this area.   Behind the fan is the brother worker that was leading our tour of the villages.  

This is outside of the home of some of our friends in this Village.  

This is the street of the younger brother worker's parents. 

The family works together with a few other families to operate a plant nursery... In the foreground is one of the West Australian friends that are visiting.  

Here are some of the cows (water buffalo) that were resting in the shelter.  

This is a typical country road in this area of India.

This little yellow house is the home of some of the friends in another village.  

The man walking to the gate is Walter one of the visiting workers from Ireland. 

This is the road outside of our friend's home.

Together our Indian Brother guiding us to the home of new brother's parents. 

They spend the morning preparing lunch for convention preps and the food will be delivered to the convention place by this little yellow motorized tricycle.

Tomo had gone to dinner with the friends and workers.  He was hungry for a green salad.  On the menu they had 'tomato soup' and 'GREEN SALAD'.  So he ordered it.  Below is what he got!

The 'GREEN SALAD' consisted of slices of peeled cucumber, slices of carrot, tomato wedges, and slices of red onion with two GREEN peppers.  Not sure why they call this a 'green salad'..... but anyway it was fresh vegetables.  

This is the hotel logo that Tomo stayed in.  

From Bangalore to Vijayawada to Rajahmundry

Got in to Rajahmundry this morning, staying in a hotel till convention starts. Pretty nice hotel, really nice room. In a room for two but have it to my self. Haven't taken any pics with my phone. Tomorrow all visitors and visiting friends are going to visit some of the friends in the villages in the morning and then to preps in the afternoon.

I'll take some pics tomorrow and send it tomorrow night.

View Larger Map

Tomo is enjoying his time in India.  The Bangalore Convention had many visitors from various countries.  There he met up with various young people from Sri Lanka, Germany, Romania, New Zealand and Australia.  The next stop was a 15 hour night train trip to Vijiyawada, India.  This convention had the largest group of people gathering so far, around 400.  His cousin, Mariko said that it was the first time for her to speak in a convention meeting of this size.  They had very nice days there.
The visitors and the visiting workers arrived in Rajahmundry on Monday morning and are in a hotel for a few days before the conventions start.  Tomo has sent some photos of the hotel and this one has internet connection so we can make contact with him.

Tomo's hotel in Rajahmundry

His room for two but he is the only one there. 

My hotel room to start with ... Pretty nice hotel, really nice room. In a room for two but have it to my self. All visitors and visiting friends are going to visit some of the friends in the villages in the morning and then to preps in the afternoon. Getting ready to leave for the villages now.  Here is the outside view of hotel. 


More photos later.